Representation by Suffolk Coast Acting for Resilience (Suffolk Coast Acting for Resilience)
- Date submitted
- 30 September 2020
- Submitted by
- Non-statutory organisations
i. the extensive papers submitted by EDF do not begin to address the issue of coastal erosion outside the narrow Sizewell Bay. The proposal assumes that nothing will change south of the Great Sizewell Bay. There is no evidence to explain this assumption despite what must be the obvious- the long term and integrated evolution of entire the coast, including Dunwich losing its port and the Alde and Ore Estuary being formed. ii. the EDF plans on the exact construction of Sizewell C and its sea defences are incomplete. It is not possible to assess the likely impact on coastal flows when the plans for hard core construction are not given. iii. the plant will be in situ for not only its 70 or so years of operation but many decades longer possibly in perpetuity. Yet, the plans propose ceasing to monitor the impact of the installation and any coastal defence works on front of the plant around 10 years before it ceases operations. This is mistaken as the physical plant, operating or not, will affect coastal erosion indefinitely. iv. were the plans to go ahead, there needs to be a serious legally watertight plan for monitoring the impact on the coast, not only for plant safety but for the impact on the area which would otherwise not have happened. Such a plan also needs strong clauses should any mitigation be necessary because of any adverse effects of the impact of the construction. The complete monitoring and mitigation plan must be properly funded: if the coast south of Sizewell C does get adversely affected, long term funds must be kept available for coastal defence works, including for Aldeburgh to at least Shingle Street. v. Despite the plans being submitted in 2020, the latest information on climate change, sea level rise and coastal evolution has not been taken into account, undermining the soundness of any assessments. The application uses the UK CCRA report 2018 estimates, not those of the IPPC in 2019: the developers must be aware that latest information showed that the impact of these factors would be far greater than previously thought.